If the Obamacare Ruling Goes Our Way, It's Worth Celebrating

RUSH: This is Paul in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania. How are you, sir? Welcome.

CALLER: I'm wonderful, Rush. The more important thing is, how are you?

RUSH: I'm cool. Everything is hunky-dory. If I told you anything other than that it would cause a national panic.

CALLER: (laughing) God bless Rush Limbaugh, now and always.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: This is a very quick -- Snerdley, I thought he was going to laugh right off his chair. I'm a first-time caller, but maybe a memorable caller. What does he mean -- I'm talking about John Boehner and the other pundits -- don't spike the football with the health care thing?

RUSH: Are you really asking, or are you asking rhetorically?

CALLER: Rhetorically.

RUSH: He's basically saying, "Let's not gloat."

CALLER: Huh?

RUSH: We're not going to spike the football means we're not going to taunt.

CALLER: We're not going to taunt.

RUSH: We're not going to gloat. We're not going to have the ref throw a yellow flag on us after we score the touchdown.

CALLER: What was Queen Nancy doing when they ran this thing through on Christmas Eve and then just a little bit later marched up Capitol Hill with the ding dong gavel that they use in the carnival to ring a bell?

RUSH: I understand, but you see, if we do that the independents will get mad at us and vote for more communism. Well, that's what the consultants tell our guys.

RUSH: It's a character thing. I understand what Boehner's saying. In fact, after the 2002 midterms, you might get mad at me for this, the 2002 midterms, I was on NBC's election night coverage with Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert, and it was a Republican sweep. And both those guys were stunned. The first House race's midterm elections in a president's first term usually go against him. The conventional wisdom was that Bush was going to lose because of 9/11. The conventional wisdom was that history would be true to form and Republicans would lose a lot of seats in the House, and it was just the opposite.

We were coming off the Wellstone Memorial and all night long I'm watching the returns come in and it's going the opposite of what they thought. It turned out to be huge and I was telling these guys why it happened. I loved Russert. Brokaw I like. He's okay. But clearly they were shocked. They get stuck in their narratives. And when the night was over and it was my last spot, they said: "So what next, Rush?" I said it's important for the Republicans not to gloat about this from the standpoint, "Let's not act surprised we won. That's what should have happened. Let's not act surprised we scored a touchdown. Let's not act like something that doesn't happen very much. Let's act like winners, like it's something that we expect and move on."

I didn't want a repeat of 1994, where we won big and stopped teaching because we assumed everybody thought that we had become the majority. So what Boehner is saying, whether you agree with him or not, what he's trying to express here is that we're better than Pelosi, we have a little class. The country's in dire straits and it's not about us. It's about saving the country from the direction we're headed under Obama, and this is one step, but there's a lot to go. But if you want to go out there and spike the football, you go right ahead. I'm going to spike the football. I'm going to have my little fun with it if that happens.

CALLER: And I could never be mad at you Rush. You are running the Institute of Conservatism. You're the professor of conservatism. I look forward every day to listening to you and gaining your knowledge that you share with everyone.

RUSH: That's what my wife, Kathryn, says to me about once a year.

CALLER: I guarantee you. I guarantee you. I'm just looking so forward to the coming weeks and the coming campaign. Could I ask you one other quick question?

RUSH: Sure, fire away. It's Open Line Friday. That's what it's for.

CALLER: I'm speaking personally. In the '10 election I worked about three months for the Republican Party in the '10 election and I found out just being on the phones what a big difference that it can make. I found out, just using my head a little bit in my own family, there's two people in my family that have never voted. Can you believe that? Two people. And they know how I feel. I guarantee you, they're voting because I'm taking them.

RUSH: This is great. You found out, A, it feels good. And, B, you mattered, you were a factor. But B, it does matter. It's fundamentally important to do so. I'm glad you did that. Spread the word. By the way, I want to get an indication from you, if you're going to spike the football, what is that? What are you going to do? If we get a ruling that you like, how are you going to celebrate?

CALLER: How am I going to celebrate? I'm going to celebrate by telling all my friends, all my acquaintances, just sharing it.

CALLER: (laughing) I came up with a good one for Mayor Bloomberg anyway. They probably would have come out with a piggyback where you get one, you get one free on a piggyback, that wouldn't have --

RUSH: Yeah, the 15-ounce cups and sell them twice.

CALLER: Yeah. If everyone's listening, look in their family, and if they can get one person, just one in their family to get out there that hasn't gotten out there before. I'm going to drive two of them to the polls.

RUSH: Well, that is superb. One of our great sponsors here, FreedomWorks, that's what they do. They put people like you together with other people who want to bring about that result. That's cool. This spiking the football, I knew when Boehner said that, that there were going to be some people not happy about it, because it is a huge deal if we beat this. It's monumental. It's going to rank right up there with one of the most important things that ever happened to save the country. And it is worth feeling really, really good about. I understand -- look it, folks, it's inside the Beltway, the liberals run that show. They run everything inside the Beltway. And I guarantee you, they're being advised by consultants, "Don't gloat. Don't spike the football. It will tick off the independents. Obama's personally liked. People aren't going to look at this as a personal defeat for Obama." I can hear it all now.

By the way, I have it on good authority... I had a powerful influential member of the media, I had a super secret phone call this morning from the highest levels of the Republican establishment. I'll just tell you what I was told. That nobody knows how the court's going to rule. The person I talked to thinks it's highly unlikely that Obama knows. I said: "You really think Kagan or Sotomayor or somebody hasn't called him?"

"No, the Court's done a pretty good job of maintaining security like this."

Okay. Fine. Then I was told that if the mandate is thrown out, if the mandate is found unconstitutional, that the Republicans are going to move immediately to ban the rest of it. Not replace it. They are going to move to ban the rest of it. If only the mandate goes down, they're going to immediately move to ban the rest of it. Now, you have to keep in mind they don't have the votes right now to get rid of anything. They're just the majority in the House. They can't control what the Senate does. They don't have enough votes to override Obama. But I think I was told the truth.

I think if the mandate goes down, I think House Republicans will make a huge show next week of going after the rest of the bill. If the whole thing is upheld, I think they're going to make a massive move to repeal the whole thing, because I was told they know. They're very confident in the polling data that only 30 percent of the American people want this. I'm just telling you what I was told. Time will tell, but it's well understood at the highest levels inside the Beltway, that I can't be spun. So I'm pretty confident that what I was told is truthful and heartfelt. Now, beyond making a big show out of repealing the whole thing, if there is an action to follow, we'll all have to wait and see. Time will tell. And it won't be very long.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, I tell you: If you want to spike the football next week if the ruling on health care goes our way, you go right ahead. If there is anything worth celebrating out there, it's liberty. If there's anything worth celebrating it's our freedom -- and we don't get to celebrate that enough. We don't take the time to celebrate that enough. So if you want to spike the football, you go right ahead. Because if this ruling comes down, do you think the other side is going to sit there and whimper away?

They are going to be out there.

They've already got the plan.

They're going to try to scare everybody to death with what's ahead. "You're not going to get health care! You're not going to be able to afford it. You're going to die. Grandma's going to die. Grandpa's gonna die." You wait. They're going to be loading this thing up with scare tactics like you haven't seen. It's going to become their number one campaign issue. I'll tell you what it's going to be. It's going to be a variation of, "Five people just said that you can't have health care while they keep theirs. Five people just said that."

In fact, it's going to be "five guys."

"Four white guys and a misdirected black guy" is what they'll say. "Four white guys and an Uncle Tom just told you that you can't have health care. President Obama gave you health care. He's the first president in 100 years to do it, and five guys on the Supreme Court have just taken it away from you." It's going to be bloody. You'll be able to keep everything if this goes down the tubes. But you don't keep your doctor; you don't keep your plan if it is fully implemented.

"Five rich Republicans took your health care away from you and they have theirs. They didn't lose theirs because they're on a government plan that was just like what Obama tried to give you." You wait. There's a part of me that's always believed that since the thing is so unpopular anyway, Obama wouldn't mind it going down. And then he can just say, "You know what? To the hell with the incremental stuff. I'm just going to go single-payer from the get-go." I'm just going to go straight for the whole ball of wax.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We go to Cincinnati. This is John. I'm glad you waited, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, good to talk to you. I've got a projection and I want to see what you think about it.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: If the Supreme Court strikes down this individual mandate, which I feel they should and they will, I think you're going to see Obama and Holder pretty much say, "The heck with state rights." They're going to go after Massachusetts over its individual mandate just to distract and deflect and make another constitutional problem, and put the spotlight on Romney.

RUSH: Well, I think you have a point there. They haven't done that yet. Obamacare, as the legitimate child of Romneycare, is something they have yet to spring. They're going to do that. We know they are. (interruption) Snerdley is in there laughing himself silly but it's the truth. They haven't sprung that yet. But we know the Romneycare authors, advisors, were out publicly last year saying that they were called to the White House to put together Obamacare in the spitting image of Romneycare.

We all knew this during the primary. This is something the regime will use. They haven't used it yet. When you hear John here say, "If Holder and Obama don't get their way they'll launch a national mandate," and you pooh-pooh it, look: Folks, you cannot pooh-pooh that stuff. Barack Obama, a week ago today, basically said, "(Raspberry) to the US Constitution." He knowingly, back in 2007 and 2008, admitted to a bunch of Hispanics that he just couldn't legally grant amnesty to illegal aliens. It was against the law, he said, and he couldn't do it.

Well he did.

He just did it.

Political re-election, and the desire for political re-election outweighed whatever is legal or not. This bunch has behaved outside the Constitution a number of times. That's just the most recent example. So it's not a stretch of the imagination to think that they would, in a fit of pique and anger, say, "Oh, yeah? Oh yeah? Try this!" And just do it, on the theory: Who's going to stop them? There isn't an election until November. Who is going to stop them? Pelosi and the Democrats and the House goes along with whatever they do.

Pelosi is already out there encouraging... In fact, this is another thing. We had the story the other day that the debt limit may have to be raised in October. Right before the election. Another debt limit fight would not benefit Obama. Raise spending? That's why he's in trouble, one of the many reasons he's in trouble. So Pelosi is urging him, under the Fourth Amendment, to say, "The hell with Congress!" and just raise it. She claims there's a clause in the 14th Amendment that permits him to do it.

Remember this came up in one of the previous debt limit battles. Pelosi has said (paraphrased), "I'm perfectly happy with Obama granting amnesty to these 800,000 and more young Hispanics who are here through no fault of their own." So If Holder and Obama want to spit on the Constitution next week? It's much easier to believe that something that has happened will happen again than it is to believe that something that hasn't happened will happen. And they've already done it. So it's a legitimate fear, it's a legitimate concern, when you understand Obama's avowed purpose.

Obama's purpose is to strip this country's super-power status away from it. There are still a lot of people who can't get their arms around that. They just can't. You tell them, you give them the evidence, you throw all his words at them, and they still don't want to believe it. They don't want to believe we've elected somebody with that view of the country. It's still a hard sell. But nevertheless, it's a legitimate concern to have about what these people will do. This is the signature legislation. This is the reason Obama will have a presidential library. He's the first president ever to have "affordable healthcare for all Americans."